Thor
|gun1name=Thor's Hammer |gun1strength=30 |gun1attacks=2 |gun1ground=X |gun1air= |gun1cool=1.28 |gun1range=7 |gun1upgrd=+3 |gun2name=Javelin missiles |gun2strength=6 (+6 vs light) |gun2attacks=4 |gun2ground= |gun2air=X |gun2cool=3 |gun2range=10 |gun2upgrd=+1/+1 vs light |addons= |evolvesto= |produce= |allows= |research= |ability= |priority=20 |killscore=2000 |makescore=1000 |lostscore= |notes=The Javelin missiles have a 0.5 splash damage radius. |structure= |hero= |campaign= |npc= |cancel= |nocat= |concatbott= |concattop= }} The thor is a huge, powerful terran mechanical unit. Overview Named after the Norse god of thunder,Knaak, Richard A. and Naohiro Washio. "Thundergod." In StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 1, pp. 48–93. Tokyopop, August 1, 2008. ISBN 1427-80721-3. the thor is a class of siege-walker.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Armory upgrades (in English). 2010. It is armed with a pair of "Thor's Hammer" particle accelerators (fired from the arms) and Javelin missile launchers (for use against aerial opponents).http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/game/unit/thor StarCraft II Units: Thor]. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2010-08-15 It can optionally be outfitted with 330mm barrage cannonsBlizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Armory upgrades (in English). 2010. and ATX has developed an "immortality protocol," allowing a thor to repair itself in the field as long as its hull remains intact.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Armory upgrades (in English). 2010. Thors only require a single crew member. and is much more manuverable than its Odin predecessor.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Media Blitz (in English). 2010-07-27. History The thor stemmed from the Terran Dominion Thor Project, a program that resulted in the creation of the Odin. By 2502,April 6, 2010. "Timeline". StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). pp. 311 - 323. ISBN 978-1416-55084-6. the thor had been developed and had become public enough that the Dominion's best thor operator, Sandin Forst, became famous. Forst took part in an anti-zerg operation on Mar Sara that year, where he vanished. During the Second Great War, the Terran Dominion utilized the thor in defending areas such as New Folsom Prison, which Raynor's Raiders hijacked.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Breakout (in English). 2010-07-27. The Raiders' chief engineer Rory Swann reverse engineered a schematic of the thor from examining the Odin prototype. Game Unit The thor can be transported by the medivac dropship. One thor fills up the transport's entire capacity, transforming into a cube-like shape and hanging from underneath. Combat Roles The thor's primary roles are to act as the spearhead, a big tough unit that can push past an artillery barrage or fortified positions or push into an enemy base and lead marines into battle. Its other primary role is to defend allied units from air attacks with its powerful anti-air weaponry. It works well against light air units, but the attack is not as effective against heavily armored air units such as battlecruisers. The thor is countered by range, mobility, and certain anti-armor units. It doesn't deal enough splash damage to effectively deal with massed units such as marines, zerglings and zealots. A popular strategy with the unit is the "thor harass" (sometimes called "thorship"), similar to the reaver harass of StarCraft. It involves pairing the thor with a medivac dropship, combining the thor's power and the mobility of the latter. Abilities Upgrades Wings of Liberty Upgrades Thor vs Siege Tanks Some features that existed on the thor in previous builds led to a concern that its role was overlapping with that of the siege tank. Unlike the siege tank, the thor is an assault unit rather than a siege unit. Its ground attack has much less range than a siege tank's 120 mm cannon, so it is exposed to enemy fire while attacking.Karune. 2007-10-05. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 16. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-10-05. Another difference from the siege tank is that the thor can also function as a ground to air attacker.Karune. 2008-03-24. Karune, your PoV on "Superunits". Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-03-24. Development In early builds, the thor could be constructed by SCVs in the field, though is now built from the factory.Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-03-16. StarCraft 2 Korean and Chinese Build Summary. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-03-18. The thor "structure" used to cost 300 minerals/ 300 gas/ 6 supply/ 100 seconds, hotkey T.BlizzCon Statistics 2 Shacknews. The thor had a slow turning speed in the BlizzCon 2007 build, enabling units such as the Cobra to destroy it easily with micromanagement. It now turns fairly quickly, and the turning speed is no longer a balancing factor. The thor was scaled down in size as it was vulnerable to micro-ing from smaller units that could be built in only a fraction of the time and resources required to build a thor.2008-24-06, Fansite Q & A With Dustin Browder, p2. StarCraft Wire. Accessed on 2008-24-06 In StarCraft II beta patch 12, the thor was shrunk from a 1.375 base to a 0.8125 base size.Nethaera. 2010-05-13. Patch Notes - Beta Patch 12. Battle.net StarCraft II General Beta Forum. Accessed 2010-05-13. By March 2008 the thor was shrunk from its original size and can move faster in order to suit its anti-air role better. However, its anti-ground attack was weakened.Joneagle X. 2008-03-12. SC2Forums.org Starcraft 2 Press Conference Report. StarCraft 2 Forums. Accessed 2008-05-01.Karune. 2008-02-04. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 28. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-02-04. Previously the thor could not be transported.Benwa. 2009-04-04. ESL Finals Paris: Stats and Q&A. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-05-18. The powerful and bulky thor of early development was resurrected as the Odin, a special campaign unit found in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Engine of Destruction (in English). 2010-07-27. The thor lost the Mechanical Rebirth ability for multiplayer by May 2009.2009-05-08. Michael Graf. Starcraft 2 - Alle Einheiten. Gamestar. Accessed 2009-05-08. Blizzard's internal playtesting showed the ability to be impractical.Blizzard, StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-05-21. StarCraft: Legacy Exclusive Fansite Q&A. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-05-21. It was retained as a campaign ability in Wings of Liberty. 250mm Cannons (Previous Version) Artillery Strike was a powerful long-ranged area-of-effect attack. To use the Artillery Strike, the thor had to expend energy, then it "stabilized" itself as the cannons on its back were lowered. The four 250mm bombardment cannons alternated raining damage upon the area.2007-09-13. Gameplay Video - Terran. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-14. This ability needed to be researched.BlizzCon Statistics 2 Shacknews. The ability was later removedBrowder, Dustin. (Cavez.) Keeping the thor as THE THOR!. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2007-12-19. as it conflicted the with the 's splash damage attacks.Dustin Browder, Adam Biessener. 2010-04-08. An Extensive Interview With StarCraft II's Design Director. Game Informer. Accessed 2010-04-09. Known Pilots *Sandin Forst *Tychus Findlay (piloted the Odin) Notes *Walter Simonson is a comic book writer and artist who famously worked on the Marvel Comics title The Mighty Thor. It appears the Simonson Munitions Factory was named after him.Profile.'' Sons of the Storm. Accessed 2008-03-05. Simonson is also the author of the World of Warcraft comic series. *The unit portrait resembles Chris Metzen, Blizzard's vice president of creative direction, who has used the alias "Thundergod", and "Lemmy" Kilmister. *The unit voice has a thick, stereotypical Austrian accent and quotes many lines from Arnold Schwarzenegger films. He also wears a Thor's hammer pendant around the neck along with a tauren marine t-shirt. *A new version of thor, named the "Super Thor", will appear instead of the standard version in the Collector's Edition of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. It is identical in terms of gameplay. The Collector's Edition also offers a mini-thor pet for World of Warcraft.Business Wire staff. 2010-04-08. StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™ Collector's Edition Announced. Business Wire. Accessed 2010-04-08. *In the game files the Thor can be found dancing. He seems to be an expert at "doing the Robot". Trivia *In Norse mythology, Thor is the son of Odin. This is reflected in-game, since Odin is the first Thor, and the Thor was built after him. Images File:Thor SC2 Anim1.gif|A walking thor Image:Thor SC2 Head1.jpg|Thor portrait File:Thor SC2 Cncpt2.jpg|Thor concepts Thor SC2 Cncpt3.jpg|Thor being drawn in stages References Category: Terran Vehicle Classes